SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Rosa Shepard rushed to Upstate University Hospital Saturday morning as soon as she got the call. Her 21-year-old brother had been shot in the head on Syracuse's West Side.

Anthony "Tank" Ebron Jr. was in surgery, "fighting for his life" when Shepard, her 21-year-old daughter Danylah Roberson and other family members arrived at the hospital.

Many gathered in a chapel at the hospital. Shepard; Roberson; Ebron's girlfriend, Kelly Santiago; and Ebron's 15-year-old niece, Amil Shepard; were eventually able to see Ebron in a hospital room. He was dying.

Roberson said she held her uncle's hand as he took his last breath.

"I still feel numb and still can't believe he is gone," she said.

Ebron had been hanging out with friends, drinking early Saturday at 183 Lakeview Ave., his niece said.

At 4:13 a.m. Saturday, the mother of one of the men Ebron knew -- and whose house he had been hanging out at -- heard what she thought were firecrackers and went outside. Charlene Davis found Ebron unconscious and bleeding at the end of her driveway. She immediately called 911.

Hours after Ebron was pronounced dead at the hospital, flowers, balloons, stuffed animals and a poster with RIP messages were placed inside a circle of sanctuary candles in the yard near where he was shot.

Family members lit candles Sunday night to remember Anthony "Tank" Ebron outside his home on South Geddes Street in Syracuse.Provided photo

Sunday night, Ebron's family gathered outside his home on South Geddes Street in Syracuse to light candles, place balloons and sign a poster to remember him.

"I don't know why someone would want to take his life," Roberson said. "He was a very outgoing person, calm, gentle, the peacemaker."

Roberson, who was born about a month before her uncle, said they grew up together.

"I used to boss him around," she said. "He'd listen, sometimes."

Ebron also liked to joke around and tease Roberson, sometimes changing the channel when she was watching television or giving her a hard time, but all in good fun, she said. They also were there for each other.

Ebron attended Frazer School and Fowler High School in Syracuse. In 2010, he moved to North Carolina, where he graduated from high school, his niece said. Ebron returned to Syracuse in 2014, she said.

Ebron lived with Shepard; Roberson lived in the apartment below them. Sometimes, he'd knock on her door if the door upstairs was locked so he could sleep on Roberson's couch, she said. The last time she saw him, Ebron talked about wanting to get his picture with Roberson's 6-month-old daughter.

"It makes me angry that the last person he saw was the person who took his life," Roberson said.

Ebron's family does not know who shot and killed him, or why, Roberson said.

"I know God has his reasons," she said, "but sometimes it doesn't make sense."